Fastening for shoes.



No. 645,468. 'Patent'e d Mar. I3, I900.

A n. w. FOWLER. FASTENING FOR SHOES.

' (Application filed. Oct. 9, 1899.

(No Model.)

THE annals vrrzns In. mmoumo" WASN u PATT nron.

HERVEY IV. FOWLER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FASTENING FOR SHOES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 645,468, dated March 13, 1900.

Application filed October 9, 1899| To all 2072,0111, it may concern:

Be it known that I, I-IERVEY W. FOWLER, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Fastenings for Shoes, of which the following is a specification in its best form now known to me, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to laced shoes, and particularly to the hooks adapted to receive the shoe strings or laces and hold the shoe upon the foot without presenting any 'points or edges in which the clothing can be caught 0r torn.

For many years hooks or studs in place of eyelets have been used to retain the shoe strings of mens shoes; but such hooks have always been objectionable in wearing the trousers and have never been successfully used upon womens shoes, because it was impossible to make them so that there were no sharp edges or spaces in the hooks in which the clothes could catch and be torn. The result has been that women have generally abandoned lace shoes altogether or used shoes equipped throughout with nothing better than the old-fashioned eyelets, through which the string is threaded. I avoid these difficulties by providing a hook in which the space for the string is of such a shape that it is substantially filled by the lace or string and in which all the edges and corners of the hook are so rounded that there is nothing on which the clothes cancatch.

My invention also relates to the special form of hook, to the position of the means for fastening it to the shoe with reference to the hook, and to the details of construction here inafter more fully described and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a shoe having my improved fasteners. Fig. 2 is a sectional View on line 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a hook. Fig. 4: is a perspective view of an eyelet for fastening the hook to the shoe. Fig. 5 shows the hook and eyelet combined. ready for at tachment to the shoe. Fig. 6 is a front elevation of the front of a portion of the shoe, showing the hooks and laces in place.

I make my improved hook in the form shown in the drawings, with the space a thin Serial No. 733,023. (No model.)

and flat, so as to be substantially filledby the string b, as shown in Fig. 2, and I am able to do this by making the space 66 for the string at one side of the opening c, through which the eyelet d passes. In hooks now in general use the means for fastening the hook to the shoe is substantially under the opening for the string, and as the opening has to be made large enough so that the tool for fastening the eyelet may be inserted within the hook the result is that the opening is too large for the string and an edge is left on which the clothes can catch. As a further means of preventing the catching and tearing of clothing I preferably make the hook of round wire,with the outer edge or point bent in the curve e. The portion 6 of this curve 6 serves to ward ofi objects which would tend to catch in the hook, while the portion 6 serves as a guide to the string as it enters the hook. This rounding of the end of the hook also prevents its cutting the string or lace, as is often done by hooks used heretofore. I also have the flange of the eyelet curved down over the wire of the hook, as shown at f, Fig. 2. The curve eiwith curve f of the eyelet,

forms a recess for the lace, keeping the lace when loose from backing out of the hook too easily.

' Another advantage of my invention is that when used in combination with the common eyelets g on the lower part of the shoe, as is the common practice, the eyelets g and the eyelets d, fastening the hook to the shoe, form a straight line up the shoe, as shown in Fig. 1, and give a more ornamental appearance than when eyelets are used for the lower half and hooks without eyelets are used on the upper half of the shoe, as havebeen done heretofore. By making the opening 01 in the hook just fit the string I keep the strings flat and smooth, as shown in Fig. 6, thereby.

adding to the neatness of the shoe. By placing the hook at one side of the eyelet, as shown in Fig. 2, the pull of the string transversely to the eyelet is much nearer the cen ter of the eyelet than is possible where the hook is directly over the eyelet, as is the common construction, thereby reducing the 1 tendency to tilt the hook and pull the eyelet out of the leather.

While the drawings show my hook made of wire, it may be made of other material without departing from my invention.

While my invention is particularly applicable to womens shoes, it is also valuable on mens and childrens shoes. Children at play Wearing shoes equipped with the usual form of hook orstud are troubled by grass, strings, and other objects catching in the hooks, and this is avoided by my improved 'fastenings.

In making the hooks for commercial use I prefer to make the hook and the eyelet for fastening it to the shoe together, as shownin Fig. 5, so that they may be secured to the shoe by any of the ordinary machines used for attaching the common eyelets 9.

Having thus described myinvention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination of a hook for a shoe having its point e rounded as shown, a space a for the string of the shoe, an opening 0 in the shank of said hook to one side of the hook proper, an eyelet d through said opening having its flange bent so as to clasp the edge of said opening 0 and secure the eyelet to the hook whereby the inner curved edge of said flange and said point e are substantially in a vertical line, thus partially closing the string-space a, substantially as described.

2. As an article of manufacture a hook for a shoe, with rounded outer edges, having an opening 0 therein, a string-space a, a rounded point e, and an eyelet for securing it to the shoe, by passing said eyelet through the opening 0, and fastening it in the usual manner, the inner edge of said eyelet and the rounded point e being substantially in a vertical line so as to partially close the string-space a, substantially as described;

3. As an article of manufacture a hook for a shoe, made from a piece of substantially round Wire, bent to form a loop 0 adapted to be engaged by an eyelet, the two ends of the wire extending therefrom and lying substantially parallel and bent upward to form the hook, and finally recurved in a vertical plane to produce a rounded end, substantially as described.

4. As an article of manufacture a hook for a shoe, made from a piece of substantially round wire bent to form a loop 0 adapted to be engaged by an eyelet, the two ends of the wire extending therefrom and lying substantially parallel and bent upward to form the hook, and finally recurved in a vertical plane to produce a rounded'end, the ends of the wire contacting with the upper part of the hook, substantially as described.

- HERVEY W. FOWLER;

Witnesses:

DWIGHT B. CHEEVER, ROBERT K. S. CATHERWOOD. 

